Hello, good evening and welcome to our first chapel of the BGNBC 2024-2025 school year. So we are so glad to have you back. Are you glad to be back if you're coming back?
I hope you are. And for you who are new students, we want to welcome you and we are glad, very glad that God has led you to come here. So as you have noticed there's a lot of announcements here at the beginning of the school year to make sure we know what we're doing and get started right.
So I'll just quickly emphasize a few of them. We have in I think somewhere in the back Or somebody, maybe the student representatives, have copies of the schedule of classes. Who has those?
Who's... holding those. Okay, I think they're somewhere.
Oh, I know where they are. They are on the ground floor desk, right? Okay, so we do want to encourage you to encourage others to enroll.
There still is time. So there's a late fee, I think, but it's still going to be well worth it because even a single class, a subject, would have a great impact upon somebody. if they knew about a class that maybe they should take, consider, and they enroll, like Christian Family. You know that people have found their spouse by enrolling in Christian Family, so maybe you can mention that as an encouragement to them. But there are many other classes that would be of great benefit, and there's still time to enroll.
Your first assignment, and this is for everybody, even the returning students, is to read this year's edition of the student handbook. And I believe the student handbook will also be available. to you to to pick up tonight or to get tonight right after chapel so please get a that a PDF of that is already in the office student hub and I think also in our web website.
But we do want to make sure that everybody has even a physical copy of the student handbook and you need to please read that before our orientation on August 20. So you should also join the office student hub. That is very important to be able to, if you're going to revise your enrollment at all or get notices from the office, all of that is still available. through that Google Classroom online called the Office Student Hub. So please join that.
And there's a way to join that. I think everybody's been invited already. Or if you have joined the Facebook group of this semester's students, I think you could also see the link there.
Okay. And so there are a couple of things that will happen right after chapel. Right after chapel is going to be a guard receptionist meeting, and that will be in room 202 with Ms. May Monaco.
us. If you are, I think there are still some vacant slots if you are interested in being a guard receptionist for BGNBC and it's really a really easy job. You sit at the desk and you study.
So anybody who has signed up or is interested please join that meeting right after Chapel Sunday at 2 or 2 and if you are a new student There will be a student ID picture taking in room 301. And this Friday there will be Gospel at Baptist Church just down the street is going to be having an evangelistic drama and Mrs. Rena Buenaluz who's in our office she is I believe she's the one that is organizing that evangelistic drama so we want to encourage you to encourage others to attend that especially unsaved people that maybe you meet here around here or really anywhere and they can maybe they would not attend a regular church service but they would be interested in watching a drama or a live play and that will be this coming Friday at 7 p.m. and they will hear the message of the gospel both a drama and then a short about a 15-minute message after that Okay, have the new student representatives been flashed? Okay, so I will announce the new student representatives and assistants for this school year. So for Alethea, the two representatives, the lead representatives are Ezekiel Castro and Kimberly Pizon and the assistant is James Tique.
For Hesed, it's AJ Eva and Arlene De La Cruz are the representatives. And the assistants are Samuel La and Tiffany Notarte. For Dulas, the two representatives are Arjan Mabagu and Heavenle Bagadut.
I never learned to say your last name. You'll have to correct me on that. For Shalom, the representatives are Aldrin Areola and Mikaela Rigadi, and the assistant is Gloria.
So let's give these... This here is our representatives and assistants. A round of applause. So congratulations, you have been voted into office.
You've been elected by your fellow students. So our announcement time is a little bit longer, because I want to add two things. And I want to encourage all of you to really consider filling out one of these forms. This is a weekly schedule and...
You may not realize it yet, but after you get all your assignments for all your classes, you will wonder, how will I survive? And how will I get everything done? Or maybe, worse, you may think, oh, this is going to be easy.
And then... When you get your report card, you discover otherwise, that you actually failed the class. So, in order to really do well at BGNBC, it does usually require a good management of your time. And one way to help you manage your time is to fill this out.
I think we have forms somewhere. Where would those be? Also downstairs. I guess downstairs. And just to remind you, we're going to be remind you for every hour of class that you have you should set aside an additional hour and a half to do the homework and if you are really new to BGBC you probably it would be wise to set aside two hours for for one hour in class set aside two hours each week to do the homework and study and prepare So that is the system at Beach and BC.
The last thing I'll mention is this. This is a new system for us, and this is called the International Provincial System. student church visit form so what this is is we're asking students who are either from another country and do not yet have a church in Metro Manila that they are committed to or if you are from the province and you cannot go to your church in the province because it's too far on the weekends so you need to find a church here we want you to really find a church where you can grow in and serve in on a weekly basis You need to find a church that you can serve in. And I think all the churches, you know, you'll hear God's word, a good church.
And we have a recommended list of churches that we post. and it'll be posted on the third floor. But perhaps not every church has a ministry in which you could serve.
And that is vital for each of you and each of us. Part of your education is not just learning in the classroom but the other part is you've got to use in your life and in your church life also. what you are learning you've got to serve it's it's wrong thinking to speak well i'm gonna learn for these four years and then after four years then i'm gonna start serving the lord in a church that is not how it works you've got to start serving the lord in a church right now and uh... Through that you will be able to grow also You'll be able to use what you are learning and you'll also be able to grow in your ability to serve the Lord so Many of you already have a home church that you go to and maybe also Maybe you are a new student from the province, but your pastor in the province has already told you of a church that he wants you to attend. Okay, so you are exempt from this.
But if you do not have a church that your pastor wants you to go to here in Metro Manila or the surrounding areas, we want you to visit... So we want you to visit six different churches and then by week nine, by that time you should have chosen which one of those six churches will be the church that you will attend. Okay, so for those of you who are in that category, you're a new student from the province and your pastor has not already given you a church to be at here in Metro Manila, or if you're an international student and you're not yet committed to a church, would you raise your hand? Raise your hand, please.
So, almost everybody who's a new student... From the province that doesn't have a church they're going to go to on the weekend, you should be raising your hand, okay? And, all right, keep your hand up. Okay, good. We don't want you to just go to a church that is convenient and sit there and just sit there.
We want you to actually involve yourself in the life of that church, in the ministry of that church, and you will grow, and you will learn, and the Lord will use you in serving Him. him, but that's not going to happen if you just think of going to church as attending it in the morning and then getting that duty done and then going back home, going back here to Beach and BC. That really is, you're going to miss out on a major part of what God wants to do in your life. Okay?
All right. And then there are instructions down there at the bottom. Your advisor or BGMBC director will recommend three churches for you to visit, and you may choose the other three, and then you need to fill this out, put in the date that you attended, and then ask for the church to be visited. six weeks and you give this to your advisor or turn it into the office and your advisory will discuss with you you know what church do you think the Lord wants you to serve in for the next year or the next four years okay so all right we'll have our congressional singing after I pray let's pray Our Father, thank you that you have given to us this great opportunity to grow and learn and serve and become the servant of the Lord that you want us to be.
We pray that you would use this chapel tonight to help us to that end. We ask in Jesus'name, amen. Please go to the back of your hymnal and we will be singing one unbroken song.
We'll be singing verses 1 and 2 for tonight. Our Father, can a song declare the praise that you deserve, for giving us your word of truth so faithfully pres... Your word revealed to us your Son His glory filled our eyes The truth we proved corrected us and rescued us from lies. Our lives belong to you, O God. Your way will be our choice, and we will sing your song of truth.
as long as we have voice. Our Father, help us keep this truth committed to our care by faithful servants teaching us with diligence and prayer. And now in every darkened place, may we obey your call. Lift up the lantern, pass to us And shine its light to all Our lives belong to you, O God Your way will be our choice And we will sing your song of truth As long as we have hope Amen. Okay, Luke chapter 9. Luke chapter 9. So we will have a series this year in chapel, and that will be a series on the Gospel of Luke.
But this is actually not part of this series, although we are going to be looking at chapter 9 of Luke. So this is kind of a topical message, kind of a family, BGNBC family message that really is probably the way what I'm going to say really is focused on a BGNBC student or also faculty and staff member. But we will look at Luke chapter 9 a little bit later.
So BGBC... is an educational institution. We are a school.
But it is a special kind of school. It's a ministry training school. Those who are here should be training for ministry.
Training, learning, taking whatever class you're taking, in order to serve the Lord. And often when we think of education, we think of learning something. We think of, when we think of being trained for the ministry, we think of developing a skill.
So we think of knowledge and skill. And at BGNBC we do do that. We do teach you some knowledge.
We do want to train you in a skill. But that actually is not the main thing that we are doing here. That may sound surprising.
If the main thing we're doing here is not teaching you or trying to help you learn a skill, then what are we doing? Let me first say the reason why it's not just about knowledge or a skill. Regarding knowledge, knowledge alone does not change anybody. And in the service of God, you can have as much knowledge as the Apostle Paul, or as much skill as Mozart, but that will not change anybody.
Knowledge alone does not change somebody. Bob Jones Jr. said or wrote, Knowledge alone, life's problems cannot meet. We learn to live by sitting at his feet.
Knowledge alone does not change anybody. Words spoken can fall to the ground and not really impact anyone. The word preached did not profit the Israelites.
People turn away from truth and turn instead to idols. And the seed of God's word often falls on hard wayside soil or thorny soil or stony ground. Knowledge alone does not change anybody.
Likewise, skill does not change anyone. And we teach various skills here, like English and speech and music. But does correct English change anybody?
No. What about eloquent speech? Does that transform somebody's life? Does eloquent speech lead to salvation or sanctification?
No, either. What about an engaging delivery as you preach God's word or teach a lesson? That does not transform or save anybody, either. And beautiful music has never saved or sanctified anybody in the history of mankind. Skill alone does not change anybody, just like knowledge alone does not change anyone.
Thank you. Now you are here to learn knowledge and to develop skill and those things will be like tools in a toolbox and it's it's really helpful when you want to work and do something to have a lot of tools in your toolbox. My father he was an auto body mechanic and I'm sorry not in engines It was the body of the car, so there's a difference.
But my father had... Conservatively, my father had 400 tools. And all of them were different.
It was amazing. He would ask me to get a tool and I, you know, he had, have you seen these tall, standing, red tool chests that are mobile on wheels? You know, my father had three of those. And every one of those had like 10 drawers full of stuff, full of tools. But if I didn't find the right tool or he couldn't find the right tool, sometimes he couldn't do a job unless he found that exact correct tool to do something.
So we want you to have a lot of tools in your toolbox so that you can do the work of the Lord effectively. But I think you realize that tools are only as good depending upon whose hands they are in. I mean you might have a... I was there one time when my father, he bought a tool.
And this tool that he bought was about 8,000 pesos. Think about that, an 8,000 peso tool. But in my hands, and maybe your hands, it would be worthless. It's got to be in the hands of somebody who in the hands of the right person.
So tools are nothing if they're not in the hands of the right person. And that is true also spiritually and in serving the Lord. All the knowledge you have, all the skills you have, have are no good for ministry unless they are in use by the right person a person who is in the hands of Jesus Christ what kind of person is using those tools and the application here is what kind of person are you If we were to answer that question, what kind of person are we?
And to tell the truth, all of us are sinners. We are all prone to pride and fear. We are all prone to lust and worldliness. We are all prone to anger and selfishness.
We are all prone to be discontent and complaining. But we are not only sinners. I hope that everybody in this room and everybody watching online are saved sinners. People whom God has set apart to be transformed more and more into the image of Jesus Christ.
And that is the mission of BGMBC. BGMBC has a slogan or a motto or a hashtag, whatever you want to call it, it is training Christ-like servants for the Great Commission. BGMBC, training Christ-like servants for the Great Commission. And what we are trying to do is to train... People to be servants, to be Christ-like, for the sake of the Great Commission.
Now, how does God do that through BGNBC? The title of this message or lesson is Bible College Training, How God Works. How does God work through Bible College Training to make you into a servant of the Lord, a Christ-like servant of the Lord?
The core and key of God doing that is described here in Luke chapter 9. If you look at Luke 9, verse 1, it tells us that Jesus called his 12 disciples together, gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases, and he sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. Okay, so here's the context. Luke chapter 9 is primarily talking about the Lord's servants. And that's what we want to, that's exactly the topic we're interested in.
The Lord's servants, being a servant for Jesus Christ. Now if you skip to verses 18 to 20. In verse 18, Jesus asked his disciples, Whom say the people that I am? Verse 19, they give a few answers from others, but verse 20, Peter said, The Christ of God. And verse 21 to 27 is what we want to read. And Jesus straightly charged them, and commanded them to tell no man that thing, saying, The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day.
And he said to them all, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it. But whosoever will lose it shall lose it. lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.
For what is a man advantaged if he gain the whole world and lose himself or be cast away? For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory and in his Father's and of the holy angels. But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the kingdom of God. and that passage is worth real examination, which we will not do because of a lack of time. But for the sake of this topic tonight, Bible college training, how God works through it or in it, I want us to see probably...
Probably the core message of Jesus here, or key verse, is verse 23. Verse 23, Jesus said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Now, in this context, of Luke 9, 21 to 27, this does apply to more than the apostles serving God. Verse 23 does have an application to whoever does not want to be cast away.
But instead, if you want to see the kingdom of God, There is, you have got to do verse 23 also. This is not work salvation. This is, as commentators point out, salvation at the very root of being saved is you have to forsake yourself, your sins.
Your belief of how you can get to heaven on your own. You have to forsake self-dependence if you're going to enter the kingdom of God. So there is an application here to someone who wants salvation and to enter the kingdom. But obviously this also applies to what a true follower of Jesus Christ is. What a true follower of Jesus Christ must do, and I would propose, what a true follower of Jesus Christ in fact does.
If somebody is a true follower of Jesus Christ, he will do these things. And he must do these things. Deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow the Lord. So, the theme of this message is a true follower of Christ denies himself, takes up his cross daily, and follows him.
Why are we talking about this? How does this relate to being a BGNBC student? Because you want to be a servant of the Lord, right? You want to be used by the Lord. You want to serve in a church and serve the King of Kings.
Some of you, many of you, in fact, in a sense, God wants all of you to be spiritual leaders. Spiritual leaders... maybe of a church, maybe the spiritual leader of a Bible club, of a Sunday school class, of a choir. Spiritual leader in your home, over your children, or a husband spiritually leading his wife.
And the fact is that the essence of a true spiritual leader is that he is a true follower. of Jesus Christ. If you are going to be used by God, a servant of God, and a true leader, you've got to be a good follower of Jesus Christ.
A good pastor is a good sheep that follows the chief shepherd. A good, the best pastor Is someone who denies himself, takes up his cross daily, and follows the Lord? What about a good church worker, a good servant in a local church? Is a follower of the head of the church, Jesus Christ?
A good servant of the Lord is someone who follows the Master. If you are going to serve God, the core and the key to serving God is denying yourself, taking up your cross daily, and following Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ modeled this in the garden when he decided, when he prayed, not my will, but thine be done.
and then he went to the cross right denying self taking up your cross and following that's what jesus did and if you're going to serve jesus that's what you need to do and i need to do also Jesus did that every day and we are to do that every day. So, let's make the application. And all this is leading to this, that I'm now going to say. How does God work through BGMBC to make you into Christ-like servants? who will fulfill the Great Commission.
How does God work through BTBC to develop church musicians, church workers, church leaders, pastors, and missionaries? Yes, we teach knowledge, we try to train in various skills, but those things are not the main thing. We are trying to Develop Christ-like character in you.
And when you think of Christ-like character, at the root of that, what you should think of is character of denying self, of taking up your cross daily, and following Jesus Christ. And everything at BTMBC is a part of that. Let's take this. Assignments.
Have you gotten any assignments yet? You probably have. And guess what? You're going to get more.
More are coming. And do you like all your assignments? I don't think, I would guess that not everybody, most of us, or all of us, none of us like all of our assignments.
Maybe you don't understand why you have to do this. Maybe it's difficult. But the main thing you're going to gain from that assignment is not the knowledge or the skill.
It's the act, gaining the habit of denying yourself to do what God wants you to do, even though it's difficult. What does it mean to take up your cross? Wasn't the cross the will of the Father, the will of God? But it was difficult?
When we have to do something difficult and deny ourselves and deny our will, we are developing the kind of character that God can use. Let's take rules. I don't know if you've gotten the student handbook yet or have seen that.
It's something like what? 30 pages long, 35, something like 35 pages, 35 pages of rules, wow, that's incredible. And all of those things are for your good. You know, we have We have our, behind that student handbook is hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours of praying, thinking, deciding what is best to help somebody become a Christ-like servant who will fulfill the Great Commission.
That is our heart behind every policy. But, you know, there's going to be things that you won't like, that you have to do. And that is your opportunity to grow.
If I told you, okay, everybody, you have to eat an ice cream cone tonight after chapel. That would not be a hardship for you. And I don't think you're going to grow spiritually from that. You might grow physically, width-wise, if you keep doing that.
But it's going to be, it actually is the things that you do not like. Let me repeat that. It's the things that you do not like, the things that are difficult, the things that you don't want to do.
That is going to be the things that God is going to use in your life to make you into a better person. To a man of God and a woman of God. When I went to Bible college, I went to Bible college with about 4,000 other people.
But not all of them were going to ministry. But there were about 1,000 of us. And I'm just talking about men, not even the ladies.
There were 1,000 men, maybe 900, going into the preaching ministry. And some of them were really great preachers, I will tell you. Because I listened to them in pulpit speech class.
And I thought, man, I wish I could preach like that. You know that some of those guys are not serving God today because they had great skill, but they did not have great character. There's somebody else that I know.
When I said that first example, I was thinking especially of somebody who was close to me. There was another guy who I sat next to in class, and I said, I sat next to him in class because I needed help in that class. And he was really smart. So I wanted to sit next to him and try to figure out what he was doing so I could get that knowledge that he was getting.
He was super smart, really knowledgeable. He also is not in the ministry today serving God. It's about what everything here that you don't like, everything that's difficult is going to be God's way to mold you. If you deny yourself and take up your cross, you know, do God's will even though it's difficult and follow Christ.
Standards of living as a Christian, we have that in our weekly practicum report. About having devotions, about having prayer, about attending church, Sunday school, Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Wednesday night. Witnessing.
And a lot of those things are not easy to do. But by doing them, you are developing, by at least denying self, Saying no to self to do what God wants you to do, you're growing. We have standards of what you cannot listen to, standards of what you should not watch, standards of what you should not do. We have ways here at Beach and BC that you serve.
Everybody who stays in the building, you have a BRR. BRR is not BRR, you know, on the mic. BRR is the building resident. Responsibility. We have SSS.
Again, that's not Social Security. That is students serving students. That's cleaning the CRs. We have student fellowships. We have conferences and seminars where you can serve.
And you may not like everything that you're supposed to do, and right there God is trying to make you into a man of God and a woman of God. You know, if you stay here at BGMBC in the dorms, you will have to turn in your cell phones at a certain time at night, right? It's like 10, 10.15, okay. And then you can pick it up in the morning at 8. Why do we do that?
Because we are really interested in your spiritual growth. We're interested in you getting enough sleep to stay awake during class. But we also are really interested in your spiritual growth.
And we do know that an overuse of cell phone, which usually takes place especially at night, is going to damage your heart spiritually. It's going to damage your character. We have SAP, spiritual accountability partners. You have to be on time.
We have classes in chapel. All of these things are part of God's way for you to learn to be on time. Deny yourself to take up your cross daily and follow the Lord. To do what you ought to do even when it's difficult, even if you don't like it.
That is the primary way that you can be molded here at Beach MBC. The knowledge and the skills, we hope you get that. But again, you can have all the knowledge, have all the skill, but God will not use you. Because God will only use those who deny themselves and take up their cross and follow him.
Let's pray. Lord, we pray that you would help us to have a spiritual view. of every circumstance, responsibility, difficulty that comes into our lives this year.
Lord, by your grace, help us to respond rightly. that we may become more and more the man of God, woman of God, and servant of God that you want us to be. In Jesus'name we pray. Amen.